True facts, that fairy was the ultimate evil. “Let me offer this flower for payment to stay at a castle to a teenage boy, all boys love flowers! Oh, you refused? Welp, let me just curse you to this ugly form, and then curse all your servants cause they’re just your property, not anything else.” I wish I knew what comic I had read that portrayed this sentiment perfectly…
“Oh dear, an eleven year old child who is living with no parents in sight was just rude to me. Well, time to fuck up the remaining formative years of his life, as one does.”
Fairies are traditionally fairly chaotic neutral. Even if he’d let her in, she’d probably still have severely messed with his life, just because she thought it was funny.
There seems to be two lines of thought towards these kinds of actions from Fairies (and other Fae) in Medieval stories.
One is that they are wise and insightful, and use a single act of thoughtlessness to reveal a character flaw that actually runs deep, and would only grow as time went on.
The other is that they’re just petty jerks.
Except that he constantly talks down on everyone, ignores people who would be happy to be with him, and focuses on her because she’s hotter, despite clearly stating she wants nothing to do with him many times. Tries to force her to marry him multiple times, including capturing her father and try send him to the loony bin because eccentric inventors are crazy, obviously. Yeah, no, Beast had some issues, but this was because he went through a crap ton of trauma at a young age. What’s Gaston’s excuse?
Beast acts monstrous to Belle at first but even at his worst, he shows more consideration for Belle as a person than Gaston does the entire movie. Beast knows from the start that you can’t force someone to love you, and tries to act better and get to know her to help. As a result, he comes to value Belle to the point of letting her go when she needs to help her father, because he wants her happiness more than he wants to break the spell.
Gaston is handsome, a skilled hunter, and strong, but those are his only good points. He obviously sees Belle’s beauty as her only worthwhile trait, and is angry that she doesn’t feel the same about him because, well, his looks ARE his only worthwhile trait. As far as he’s concerned, that’s all love is. Belle was never a person to him, just a trophy that would bolster his ego.
Prince Adam became someone worthy of love. Gaston died never having deserved it at all.
Agreed. I don’t acknowledge the live-action Disney one but was in a production of the stage show, and the solo they added into it for Beast has colored my impression of him ever since. If I Can’t Love Her is the act one finale (basically replacing that shot of him realizing what he’s done when Belle flees the West Wing, because you can’t exactly replicate that facial expression with a heavy stage mask), and it’s about four minutes of pretty-sounding self-loathing and suicidal ideation. Even with what is definitely the low point of Beast’s existence, the song’s crux is ‘If I can’t learn to love her (because I’m not capable of it yet myself) and earn her love back, what’s the point of all this?’
It’s reprised after she leaves to save her father with the focus on ‘she still doesn’t love me, and really, who can blame her?’
Stage show Disney’s Beast is worrisomely depressed, but he knows he can’t actually FORCE someone to love him, he can just try to be better than he’s been up to this point. The saddest part about the number is that it’s really just vocalizing things left implied in the movie off the strength of its animation. And also because Disney didn’t really want to make a movie where one of their lead characters was openly suicidally depressed, just implicitly.
I was SO MAD that in the extended animated version, they chose to add the song ‘Human Again’, instead of one of the songs that ACTUALLY DEVELOPED THE CHARACTERS like ‘Is this Home’ or ‘If I can’t love her’. Human Again is a throw-away song that does nothing for the story.
But anyway, I think BatB has a lot to say about redeemable versus irredeemable. Both the Beast and Gaston started out as villains, but Gaston is the kind of villain that will never be redeemed because he’s the kind of villain that operates with the blessing of the community.
In-universe? It seems like it’s more a matter of “these people aren’t actually people, they may as well be part of the furniture” (no pun intended). At the time, were servants _servants_, or were they slaves? They didn’t deserve to be cursed (really, neither did the Prince) but I get the feeling they were collateral damage rather than intentional targets.
Out of universe? It’s an excuse to have singing and dancing household objects.
In the live action one, Gaston may be a pig, but he has good reason to be mad at Belle’s father. “There are no such things as beasts or talking tea cups or magic! But there are wolves, frostbite, and starvation!”
He forms the mob/search party and secures her father to locate a woman that he thinks has a good probability of already being dead at the hands of a family member.
And then, he doesn’t take the word of the person who’s been held prisoner that this isn’t a Stockholm syndrome thing. For the setting, he’s got a point.
It has the potential to be a nuanced character. Relatable, gross, and also understandable about why the community values him.
I can’t say anything about the live action myself, I only saw the animation. I can only judge based on the animation, and based on that, Gaston’s a jerky jock.
Medieval and post-medieval servants are an odd thing to modern folk, or Americans in general. But there was a sort of pride in being a servant for some- it was a position and place, and had a power of its own sort, to be a servant to a powerful person. You may still be dressing in servant’s clothes, but they’re going to be high-quality clothes, better than even some merchants or lesser nobility wears, if your master/mistress is high enough on the pecking order. You’ll be eating leftovers, but they’re leftovers of exotic foods and banquets, with hardly anything having rot or mold (except the cheese, of course). You probably have access to healthcare, clean water, bathing supplies… And if you’re lucky, you’re even in a position to enact change through how you treat your employer.
Beauty and the Beast is a redemption story. Beast starts out as evil, exactly as Te Fahn says, but learns to be better. I do agree that the fairy was cruel to curse the servants.
Actually a bit I always forget: the real reason Beast didn’t kill Gaston is because Gaston reminded him a lot of himself when he was young. He pitied him more than he hated him.
Agreed that the Enchantress was the real villain. The Beast had been cursed since 11 — who the hell knows good moral behavior, for real, at 11? Little kids are still learning! I can’t imagine royal kids are particularly disciplined or whatever. Then, he’s turned into a monster for his adolescence, which must be *awful.* No wonder he was screwed up.
That said, I think the live-action remake did him more justice, showing more facets of his personality and interests and actually having Belle and him bond.
This reminds me of one of my pet peeves when I was at kindergarten age — when a story had a hero and a villain and one of them was male and the other one female, guess who was who, invariably, Every. Single. Time.
You’re not wrong.
True facts, that fairy was the ultimate evil. “Let me offer this flower for payment to stay at a castle to a teenage boy, all boys love flowers! Oh, you refused? Welp, let me just curse you to this ugly form, and then curse all your servants cause they’re just your property, not anything else.” I wish I knew what comic I had read that portrayed this sentiment perfectly…
By “teenage” you mean “eleven”.
So a tween. Even worse. Not only is their body going through crap ton of changes, let’s just make it even more fun changes!
“Oh dear, an eleven year old child who is living with no parents in sight was just rude to me. Well, time to fuck up the remaining formative years of his life, as one does.”
So legit…
Fairies are traditionally fairly chaotic neutral. Even if he’d let her in, she’d probably still have severely messed with his life, just because she thought it was funny.
That messed me up when I realized it later. Like, dang. We found a character WORSE than Gaston.
Screw over him, AND all the servants’ lives as well.
Disproportionate response, to say the least.
And there’s supposed to be a moral lesson about vanity and judging by appearances awkwardly shoved in there?
There seems to be two lines of thought towards these kinds of actions from Fairies (and other Fae) in Medieval stories.
One is that they are wise and insightful, and use a single act of thoughtlessness to reveal a character flaw that actually runs deep, and would only grow as time went on.
The other is that they’re just petty jerks.
The original had the parents cruel to the woman and she cursed the child.
In the Disney version, what was an 11 year old doing answering the door?
Hay Diana I found the comic you were talking about.
https://www.nerdism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Beauty-and-Beast-real-ending-2-768×383.jpg
https://batbcomic.tumblr.com/post/61504667355/wonderella-takes-on-an-enchantress
Ahahahah Te Fahn you little insightful genius. I’m glad she thinks more outside the box! Tehk too! Never judge by appearances.
She’s easily becoming my favorite character. :3
Beast is depressed, alone, and cursed by an evil fairy, what’s Gaston’s excuse?
(Sorry, this is a topic I’m passionate about. One villain coloring book included Beast and I was like DUDE NOT COOL!)
I mean the beast is literally holding Belle hostage. If it weren’t for her case of stockholm syndrome Gaston would be the hero of that story.
Except that he constantly talks down on everyone, ignores people who would be happy to be with him, and focuses on her because she’s hotter, despite clearly stating she wants nothing to do with him many times. Tries to force her to marry him multiple times, including capturing her father and try send him to the loony bin because eccentric inventors are crazy, obviously. Yeah, no, Beast had some issues, but this was because he went through a crap ton of trauma at a young age. What’s Gaston’s excuse?
Exactly.
Beast acts monstrous to Belle at first but even at his worst, he shows more consideration for Belle as a person than Gaston does the entire movie. Beast knows from the start that you can’t force someone to love you, and tries to act better and get to know her to help. As a result, he comes to value Belle to the point of letting her go when she needs to help her father, because he wants her happiness more than he wants to break the spell.
Gaston is handsome, a skilled hunter, and strong, but those are his only good points. He obviously sees Belle’s beauty as her only worthwhile trait, and is angry that she doesn’t feel the same about him because, well, his looks ARE his only worthwhile trait. As far as he’s concerned, that’s all love is. Belle was never a person to him, just a trophy that would bolster his ego.
Prince Adam became someone worthy of love. Gaston died never having deserved it at all.
Agreed. I don’t acknowledge the live-action Disney one but was in a production of the stage show, and the solo they added into it for Beast has colored my impression of him ever since. If I Can’t Love Her is the act one finale (basically replacing that shot of him realizing what he’s done when Belle flees the West Wing, because you can’t exactly replicate that facial expression with a heavy stage mask), and it’s about four minutes of pretty-sounding self-loathing and suicidal ideation. Even with what is definitely the low point of Beast’s existence, the song’s crux is ‘If I can’t learn to love her (because I’m not capable of it yet myself) and earn her love back, what’s the point of all this?’
It’s reprised after she leaves to save her father with the focus on ‘she still doesn’t love me, and really, who can blame her?’
Stage show Disney’s Beast is worrisomely depressed, but he knows he can’t actually FORCE someone to love him, he can just try to be better than he’s been up to this point. The saddest part about the number is that it’s really just vocalizing things left implied in the movie off the strength of its animation. And also because Disney didn’t really want to make a movie where one of their lead characters was openly suicidally depressed, just implicitly.
I was SO MAD that in the extended animated version, they chose to add the song ‘Human Again’, instead of one of the songs that ACTUALLY DEVELOPED THE CHARACTERS like ‘Is this Home’ or ‘If I can’t love her’. Human Again is a throw-away song that does nothing for the story.
“Hans… are we the baddies?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn1VxaMEjRU
But anyway, I think BatB has a lot to say about redeemable versus irredeemable. Both the Beast and Gaston started out as villains, but Gaston is the kind of villain that will never be redeemed because he’s the kind of villain that operates with the blessing of the community.
Perhaps the servants were cursed because they had enabled proto-Beast’s bad behavior?
In-universe? It seems like it’s more a matter of “these people aren’t actually people, they may as well be part of the furniture” (no pun intended). At the time, were servants _servants_, or were they slaves? They didn’t deserve to be cursed (really, neither did the Prince) but I get the feeling they were collateral damage rather than intentional targets.
Out of universe? It’s an excuse to have singing and dancing household objects.
I dunno.
In the live action one, Gaston may be a pig, but he has good reason to be mad at Belle’s father. “There are no such things as beasts or talking tea cups or magic! But there are wolves, frostbite, and starvation!”
He forms the mob/search party and secures her father to locate a woman that he thinks has a good probability of already being dead at the hands of a family member.
And then, he doesn’t take the word of the person who’s been held prisoner that this isn’t a Stockholm syndrome thing. For the setting, he’s got a point.
It has the potential to be a nuanced character. Relatable, gross, and also understandable about why the community values him.
To be fair, as far as I’m concerned the live-action version doesn’t exist.
I can’t say anything about the live action myself, I only saw the animation. I can only judge based on the animation, and based on that, Gaston’s a jerky jock.
Medieval and post-medieval servants are an odd thing to modern folk, or Americans in general. But there was a sort of pride in being a servant for some- it was a position and place, and had a power of its own sort, to be a servant to a powerful person. You may still be dressing in servant’s clothes, but they’re going to be high-quality clothes, better than even some merchants or lesser nobility wears, if your master/mistress is high enough on the pecking order. You’ll be eating leftovers, but they’re leftovers of exotic foods and banquets, with hardly anything having rot or mold (except the cheese, of course). You probably have access to healthcare, clean water, bathing supplies… And if you’re lucky, you’re even in a position to enact change through how you treat your employer.
Aw, I really enjoyed the live action version of beauty and the beast.
Beauty and the Beast is a redemption story. Beast starts out as evil, exactly as Te Fahn says, but learns to be better. I do agree that the fairy was cruel to curse the servants.
THIS. Beauty and the Beast is a story of recovery and redemption. There are so many academic papers about this.
Actually a bit I always forget: the real reason Beast didn’t kill Gaston is because Gaston reminded him a lot of himself when he was young. He pitied him more than he hated him.
“No one’s swole like Gaston
No one’s droll like Gaston
No one fits his assigned gender role like Gaston
‘I’m especially fond of the patriarchy!’
My, what a guy, that Gaston!”
(borrowed from Tumblr)
Agreed that the Enchantress was the real villain. The Beast had been cursed since 11 — who the hell knows good moral behavior, for real, at 11? Little kids are still learning! I can’t imagine royal kids are particularly disciplined or whatever. Then, he’s turned into a monster for his adolescence, which must be *awful.* No wonder he was screwed up.
That said, I think the live-action remake did him more justice, showing more facets of his personality and interests and actually having Belle and him bond.
I once read that the part of the brain that handles stuff like behavior and empathy is still developing in to our early to mid twenties.
Ironically I know some fourty year olds who still act like they are eleven.
Or seventy-four year olds who act like they’re five.
This reminds me of one of my pet peeves when I was at kindergarten age — when a story had a hero and a villain and one of them was male and the other one female, guess who was who, invariably, Every. Single. Time.